rehall
rehall
| Forum role | Member since | Last activity | Topics created | Replies created |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Sep 3, 2010 (15 years) |
- | 2 | 1 |
- Forum role
- Member
- Member since
Sep 3, 2010 (15 years)
- Last activity
- -
- Topics created
- 2
- Replies created
- 1
Bio
I am a 83-year-old lawyer. I am married to Beverly, who has been my lover, partner and source of stability during my disorganized, disorderly and somewhat tumultuous life for more than sixty-two years. We met when we were six years old, "went steady" in high school and have not been apart for more than a few months since our first meeting.
I was educated in the public schools of Utopia and McAllen Texas, and in the University of Texas at Austin.
I was licensed to practice law in 1954 and obtained my law degree in 1955 (The law permitted taking the bar exam before graduating from law school in those days.) I spent a little over a year as a law clerk for the Texas Supreme Court from 1954 until 1956.
Because I believe that my life as a lawyer significantly shaped many of my opinions and beliefs, I offer the following summary of that law practice. I am aware that, to some, this may appear to be boasting but, as Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean said, "It ain't bragging if you done it."
I was Board Certified in Civil Trial Law and Employment Law. I represented unions, teacher organizations, the United Farm Workers in South Texas. I also engaged in litigation that attempted to achieve the racial integration of the Houston Independent School District. I represented public school teachers and students who were punished for exercising rights protected by the First Amendment. I represented activists who were arrested and prosecuted for trying to enforce the "public accommodations" provisions of the Civil Rights Act. I represented individuals who were charged with various crimes, mostly misdemeanors and some for strike violence accusations. I represented individuals or their survivors who were killed or injured in accidents, either at work or elsewhere. Also, I sometimes handled family law, property law and contract disputes, although those were not my main area of practice. During the last ten years of my active practice, I was general counsel for the Roma ISD, a school district that I had sued earlier for punishing teachers for political activity. When the erstwhile opponents of my clients finally seized control of the school board, they hired me as district counsel.
I retired from active practice in October, 2009.
From 1952 until 1972 I engaged in an active political life in the Democratic Party. I suspended my law practice on seven different occasions to work full time in political campaigns. I worked in Senator Ralph Yarborough's unsuccessful campaigns for Governor of Texas in 1952 and 1956; in Maco Stewart's unsuccessful campaign for Texas Senate in 1957; I worked in J. Edwin Smith's unsuccessful campaign for Texas Supreme Court in 1958; I worked in Don Yarborough's unsuccessful campaigns for Governor of Texas in 1962 and 1968; and I worked in Sissy Farenthold's unsuccessful campaign for Governor of Texas in 1972.
In 1963 I worked with others to organize a coalition of Blacks, Mexican Americans, unions and white liberals within the Democratic Party in Texas. This effort was aborted in November, 1963, when JFK was assassinated and Governor John Connally was wounded. Governor Connally, the leader of opposition to any liberal political organizing in Texas, became a "victim-hero" as a result of his wound and his political ally and sponsor, LBJ became President. This made impossible any significant political liberal organization in Texas for several years.
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